38 weeks

Enough Said.


These last few weeks have gone by slower than I ever thought possible. Sleepless nights filled with wonderful pregnancy induced Carpal Tunnel, Sciatica, Restless Leg Syndrome, and constantly having to get up to pee. The 3rd Trimester is definitely a wonderful thing!

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Charlie is still an active little wiggle worm. I'm anxious to see if that continues when he's here. We may have our hands full! I can finally say that we are officially prepared for his arrival.... and I never thought we would be! We've spent the past couple of weeks getting the house ready and purchasing the last few items we need. Plus- we had an AMAZING webcam baby shower thrown for us by Dennis' mom in Louisiana that I will post about once we receive everything! I am so incredibly grateful for all of our family and friends who have shown us so much love. Charlie is definitely going to be a lucky little man to have so many wonderful people in his life from the start!

We have our 38 week appointment on Wednesday... hopefully we'll find out that he's made some progress and will be making his appearance sooner than later!

Combat Monkey

When I was looking through pictures that Dennis had sent me from Afghanistan, I noticed a little black and white stuffed animal in a few of them. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was "combat monkey." While in Afghanistan, one of Dennis' marines named Michael received a care package full of stuffed animals. I'm not sure what the reason was, maybe to give to the local children... Either way, Combat Monkey was adopted and went on every patrol that Dennis and Michael went on. He either stayed in Dennis' pocket, his backpack, in Michael's pocket or on the dashboard of the humvee. He was their 'good luck charm.' Seeing something like a monkey beanie baby pop up in pictures here and there made laugh, which definitely helped a little knowing that even though Dennis was in a combat zone there was still time for fun.

A few weeks ago, I asked Dennis if Combat Monkey had made it back to Hawaii. He asked Michael, and sure enough Michael still had him. I couldn't help but think how fitting it would be to have Combat Monkey in our post-Afghanistan-deployment-baby's-monkey-themed-nursery. Today, Michael brought Combat Monkey to our house and he has now taken his place on Charlie's shelf. One day we'll tell Charlie all about his daddy's time in Afghanistan and how that monkey was with him on the other side of the world.

34 weeks

Dennis got behind the camera and took a few more maternity pictures for me. Here's what he came up with:

32 Weeks

This morning we had an ultrasound to check on Charlie's growth. They wanted to make sure that the septum in my uterus wasn't putting any growth restrictions on him or affecting his ability to turn head down. Turns out, the ultrasound tech couldn't even find the septum so apparently it's been pushed or stretched out of the way and is having no affect on the pregnancy. Charlie looks perfect...he's currently head down and is growing like crazy! One of my biggest fears was that he wouldn't be able to turn and I wouldn't be able to have the natural birth that Dennis and I have been preparing ourselves for. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that now! For the past few weeks I really thought that he was in a transverse position. If I pushed in on both sides of my stomach I would feel a solid lump on each side. It turns out that on my right side is his butt and on my left side, what I thought was his head is really his giant feet! The ultrasound tech told us that his feet are only a centimeter short of 3 inches right now!

She also said he has a big head which is going to be oh so fun for my drug free birth plan!
In our 4d ultrasound pictures I thought that Charlie looks alot like me when I was a baby. In this profile picture, the shape of his face really resembles Dennis. I know that when you're pregnant you see what you want to see but I really think his nose and lips totally resemble Dennis' profile!

We also got an estimate of what he weighs right now. The ultrasound tech told us that he's weighing in at about 4lbs 8 oz. Most babies gain about a half of a pound a week from here on out so if that's the case Charlie will at the very least weigh 8 and a half pounds! Dennis and I were both big babies and I've had multiple dreams that he will weigh 10lbs so this definitely doesn't surprise me! I really can't believe that we only have about 8 weeks left before we meet our little man.

He gave us another little wave today as if to say "See you soon mom and dad!"

Baby Shower In A Box

Being pregnant and stuck on a rock in the middle of an ocean is definitely not easy....it's hard not really having our family and friends to share it with. I don't get to go shopping for baby clothes with my mom, and when Charlie arrives, other than posting pictures online, I don't get to show off our new baby to the people that we're closest to. While I am so thankful that I have Dennis home to experience every second of this pregnancy with me, I do wish that we were at least attached to the same piece of land as the rest of our families. We are also so incredibly blessed to have family back home that goes out of their way to make us not completely feel like there is an ocean between us.

This afternoon there was a box on our front porch.

My mom and grandma sent us a box filled to the brim with baby presents wrapped in monkey/jungle themed paper.

Here's a peek at what was in the box:






I can't wait to see Charlie in this. There's just something about these nightgowns that make babies seem extra snuggly!

This is one of my absolute favorites...EVERY baby needs a glowworm!

I love this little Giraffe rattle!

This blanket is SO soft and snuggly!

A rainbow of baby bibs!

and...

My favorite outfit of all- How cute is Charlie going to look in this! Hopefully his uncle Jordan will be able to come back out to Hawaii so we can take a picture of them together!

Thank you Mom, Dad, Grandma, Jordan, Kay and Danielle for everything!!!
We love and miss you all!

30 weeks

Charlie's room is finished! The wall decal I ordered finally came in the mail and that's all we were waiting for to complete the room. I can't believe we only have about 10 weeks (give or take a few) before we meet Charlie!

Here are a couple of belly shots that Dennis took. I think he did a pretty good job!

Hello 3rd Trimester!!!

Dennis and I kept going back and forth about whether we wanted to get a 3d/4d ultrasound done again. We absolutely loved the first one we got at 17 weeks and knew we wanted to see his face once he filled out a little more but couldn't decide if we wanted to spend the money on it since there is still so much more we have to do to prepare for his arrival. When it came down to it, we decided that we would treat ourselves- plus think how awesome it's going to be to show these pictures to Charlie one day!

When the Tech first got him on the screen, Charlie was doing exactly what I expected he would...covering his face! This has been the norm for him for the last 2 ultrasounds we had. If you remember from our 17 week 3d session, he kept his arms up by his head the whole time. At our 20 week anatomy scan, he had his feet right by his head. Absolutely nothing has changed with out stubborn child!


These make me laugh- It looks like he's scratching his nose with his hands and when that didn't work out for him it looks like he tried to pick his nose with his toes! Is our child part monkey?!

He looks so sweet and peaceful in these. It's amazing how much his face has filled out in just 11 weeks!

Here's his foot back up by his face and the U/S Tech caught him yawning! In the second picture, I like to think that he was blowing me kisses!

These are absolutely my favorite. Before going to our appointment I wasn't sure how I would feel when I saw him. I thought that I really would just think that he looked like every other baby that I've seen 3d pictures of. It's so amazing because I can already see so much of Dennis and I in him. He looks so much like my baby pictures and every so often we caught a glimpse of what looked like a little butt chin! You can see it in the picture on the left- Dennis is so proud of that! I was really hoping we'd get pictures of him smiling and we definitely did!

Only 12 more weeks until we get to meet our sweet baby boy!